.Fairwinds was lifted out today and is sitting in Balvicar boatyard. Time to finally take the stormboards off her I guess . . . although with tomorrow's forecast I guess we'll leave them on another couple of days.

We set of with three coats of XM soft antifoul over new primer. I scrubbed most of the hull except the keel in La Gomera, in Las Palmas, again in Graciosa and finally in Terceira. By this time there was no antifouling left round the waterline.

When we got back to Balvicar the boat developed a huge beard very quicky - much worse fouling here than we experienced below 30deg S

When she was hauled out we weren't there, but Mike (who pressure washed her after hauling her) said she had some 'strange foreign stuff' on her.